Featured News

How can older buildings continue to make a positive contribution to
the sustainability of the built environment? The response to this
topic at the recent STBA-SPAB
Conference has encouraged us to provide further
opportunities to look into this subject more deeply. See the
discussion so far in the Conference
Review.

In advance of the main debate - that was due to be held in November
- we shall be holding a members' workshop to define the debate
focus of this vast topic. This will narrow down the issues to be
discussed to enable practical progress for the sustainability of
older buildings.

STBA
Members' Workshop -

Heritage,
Environment & Industry: Common Ground and
Conflicts‬

The members' workshop
- Heritage, Environment & Industry: Common
Ground and
Conflicts‬- will
take place in London towards the end of the year and will include a
festive drink or two.

Further information coming
soon.

Each Home Counts Workstreams - Getting
Involved

The STBA is engaging
with several of the Each Home
Counts workstreams. We are working to ensure that
the particular needs of traditional buildings
are included.

Nigel
Griffiths serves on the Standards
Group

Sam Allwinkle on
Training

Nick
Heath on Design &
Installation

We would be interested to hear
from our members who are attending other groups - if you are
involved, please let Nigel
know.

Private Rented Sector
Legislation

From April 2018 it will become
illegal to let out a property with an EPC rating worse than “E”.
The PRS guidance for non-domestic properties has already been
published and is available here. The Domestic guidance has been drafted
but not yet published.

There is a particular issue
relating to whether or not listed buildings are legally exempt
from the requirement to have an EPC at the point of sale or
let.

Resolution of this issue rests with
DCLG but we understand that their efforts are currently focused on
dealing with the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster and it may yet
be some time before they produce a further guidance note on listed
buildings.

APPG for Healthy
Homes and Buildings

Consultation
period for Green Paper

The second meeting of the All Party
Parliamentary Group for Healthy Homes and Buildings was held in
July and was attended by several of our members including NBT and
the Alliance
for Sustainable Building Products.

The agenda for this meeting was to
discuss the role and purpose of the APPG and its objectives for the
coming parliament. This includes the preparation for a Healthy
Homes and Buildings Green Paper (Building our Future Laying the
Foundations for Healthy Homes and Buildings). A draft of this
is available
to download.

More Guidance & Research

Policy

An immediate objective of the STBA
is to focus on the risks and benefits associated with generic
approaches to repair, maintenance and retro-fitting of traditional
buildings. We have completed a gap analysis of current research on
performance of traditional buildings, including an analysis of
expertise and skills, in order to inform future research and
policies.

We are establishing advocacy routes
to key decision-makers involved in the sustainability of the built
environment, including the Green Deal, in order to help inform
policy development relating to traditional buildings.

We have completed a gap analysis of
current research on performance of traditional buildings, including
an analysis of expertise and skills, in order to inform future
research and policies.

In addition, the STBA has
identified three key areas of immediate concern relating to
standards used in the refurbishment of traditional buildings:

Government Consultations - We
are establishing advocacy routes to key decision-makers involved in
the sustainability of the built environment, in order to help
inform policy development relating to traditional buildings.

Standards and Regulations - The
STBA has identified three key areas of immediate concern relating
to standards used in the refurbishment of traditional
buildings:
Moisture Risk, Heat Loss
and
Internal Wall Insulation (IWI)

Advocacy - The
STBA is also seeking to influence the performance/ delivery of
retrofit projects on traditional buildings by working with leading
owners of building stock to measure and improve the interventions
adopted. So far this work has included work for Blackpool Council
and Bristol City Council.